By Dennis Otim

4^th Oct 2010

UPC party president Dr. Olara Otunnu has warned Ugandans to expect violent confrontations before, during, or after the 2011 if the electoral reforms demanded by the opposition are not implemented.

In an interview conducted for Uganda Correspondent by London based Ugandan Journalist Dr. Vincent Magombe, Otunnu said “…the situation in Uganda is such that below a seemingly normal situation, the country is teetering on the brink of a political explosion borne of more than two decades of entrenched repression, humiliating impoverishment, staggering corruption, nepotism, repeated electoral fraud, and impunity”.

Otunnu also warned that it would be a major historical blunder to misread the current situation in the country.  He urged Ugandans to remember that in the Kenyan post-election violence of 2007, no security forces except for the police were allowed to police the electoral process.  The others, he said, only came in after the disputed results had been declared.

Comparing that to the situation in Uganda today, Otunnu said, “…the army, the state and the ruling party are fused.  Therefore, the confrontation inevitably will be between the armed institutions of the state against unarmed civilians struggling to regain their human rights and freedom”.

Otunnu also called Museveni’s NRM government a hopelessly undemocratic and discredited regime that wants to cling to power at all costs.  The UPC president said there is corruption and impunity at the highest level of the country’s leadership.

Asked what he meant when he said UPC was a Pan-African party, Otunnu ceased the opportunity and used it to link Museveni’s government to war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Democratic Republic of Congo [DRC].

“…UPC believes in African self-determination, unity and solidarity.  UPC was at the forefront of African liberation from colonial rule.  Look at the NRM’s military adventurism into neighbouring D.R. Congo.  I wonder what Pan-African leader would sacrilegiously invade Patrice Lumumba’s country and abuse the rights of its people”, Otunnu asked.

He also pointed out that in 2005 the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Museveni’s regime committed aggression, crimes of war, crimes against humanity, and plunder of natural resources in D.R. Congo for which Uganda is to pay reparations to DR Congo to the level of ten billion US dollars.

Otunnu’s insistence that the UPDF committed atrocities in DRC comes just days after Uganda, in a strongly worded letter by Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa to the UN Human Rights Commissioner, dismissed all allegations of UPDF crimes in DRC that are contained in the UN mapping report released on Friday 1^st October.  “The draft report under reference is a compendium of rumours, deeply flawed in methodology, sourcing and standard of proof”, Kutesa said.

Next week, Uganda Correspondent will review parts of the same interview where Otunnu explains what his National Social Movement means and what his position on federalism is.  END.  If it’s Monday, it’s Uganda Correspondent.  Never miss out again!